Now is the time of the year when we send in requests to that mysterious red-garbed being at the north pole for ‘goodies’ of one sort or another. This is my belated wish-list of gifts. But not gifts for myself. These are gifts for the whole of New Zealand…

National’s “grand plans” for 220 new social and transitional places remains woefully short of the 1,138 houses that National sold off to IHC’s Accessible Properties at the end of March. It is also unclear what is meant by ” transitional places”. Are these actual houses? Or motel units, à la Auckland-style;

National is increasingly on the back-foot with New Zealand’s ever-worsening housing crisis. Ministers from the Prime minister down are desperately trying to spin a narrative that the National-led administration “is getting on top of the problem”. Despite ministerial ‘reassurances’, both Middle and Lower Working classes are feeling the dead-weight of a housing shortage; ballooning house prices, and rising rents.

The simple truth is that only a political revolution akin to Bernie Sanders is going to change NZs addiction with property. Most of our MPs are property speculators and their vested interests won’t and can’t be changed.

In recent weeks the nightly TV news has had story after story about the affordability of housing. But the moment the TV news finishes at 7:30 pm, it’s like the problem goes away. For TV they go straight into their latest reality TV hit- The Block. The Block is a celebration of property speculation. Contestants are given a house, renovate and flip it in less than six months, winners claiming any profit they get along the way.

We need to ban foreign ownership, bring in a capital gains tax and build 100 000 affordable houses for first time buyers and 10 000 state homes to be built in Auckland alongside an urban intensification to solve this Housing Crisis.

Labour have come out with an incredibly serious allegation that Steven Joyce and other Government Ministers manipulated the foreign buyers register to make the numbers appear far smaller than they really are…

We are seeing a complete break down of our crucial social services. The spiteful harvest of National’s draconian welfare reforms are coming home to roost and NZers should feel ashamed of what it says about us as a country.

New Zealand needs more state housing, not less. We are in the middle of a housing crisis for low and middle income New Zealanders and only the government has the resources and the capacity to provide the large number of quality, affordable housing so desperately needed.

Since I began renting in 1995, average rents have doubled in most parts of the country, and tripled in the most in-demand areas of Tamaki Makaurau, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, and so on. This has been accompanied by massive increases in the cost of electricity, telecommunications, water charges in some areas, and other costs associated with running a modern household.

Wellington, NZ, 21 November – Around two hundred people gathered in Cuba Mall, central Wellington, as part of a nationwide day of protest at growing homelessness; poor standards of housing; state house privatisation, and lack of long-term stability in rental accomodation;